Kazakhstan Forges Ahead with Offshore Projects

Kazakhstan wants to forge ahead with developing new oil and gas fields in its sector of the Caspian Sea and hopes to wrap up a string of deals with foreign partners next year, a senior official said on Wednesday. The deals, primarily based on PSAs, mark a second stage of offshore development to follow major initial projects such as the giant Kashagan field, being developed by Italy's ENI-led consortium. The new projects should help boost Kazakhstan's offshore oil output to 89.2 million tons by 2015, from just 3 million tons last year, an official from KazMunaiGas said.

It is said that Kazakhstan's proven offshore reserves of oil at 30 billion barrels and of gas at 3 trillion cubic metres. The largest new block, Darkhan, has an estimated 1.5 billion tons in oil reserves. Source Reuters